Neil Thompson

If you’re an entrepreneur, I’m sure you value the ability to speak well in front of people. If you’re an entrepreneur who is seeking investor funding, effective public speaking becomes even more important. Why?

A pitch from a great public speaker elicits confidence in the speaker. Who would you rather give money to: someone who is humming and hawing all throughout the pitch, or someone who delivers the pitch self-assuredly? Door number 2, please! I don’t think I’m alone in that sentiment. Investors by and large are way more likely to invest in people who communicate well. If they communicate well to the investors, chances are they’ll communicate well to employees, vendors, and customers. You know what all that leads to? Money!

If you’re an entrepreneur who doesn’t pitch to investors, you still have to communicate. How do you get your employees to be productive? How about getting vendors to provide you with what you want? And getting customers to buy? Public speaking! If you present clearly to employees what you need them to do, they’ll be more productive and make money for your enterprise. If you tell vendors exactly what you need, they’re more likely to give it to you. If you give customers a clear vision of what your product or service will do for them and how it will transform them, they’re more likely to buy.

You know what else excelling at public speaking can lead to? Opportunities you weren’t even looking for. Public speaking led me to join a speaker’s guild, which led me to get speaking engagements I didn’t even know existed. It also led me to meet people who would later appear as guests on my podcast that focuses on…public speaking!

To recap, for people who pitch, public speaking:

elicits confidence, which

makes investors more likely to invest, and

results in your business flourishing.

Even for non-investor-pitching entrepreneurs, public speaking:

Makes employees more productive

Improves vendor relations

Leads to more customer purchases

There’s really no downside to becoming a better public speaker. It makes sense to work on it. So get on it!

Clinton Young is an energetic and powerful professional speaker. International Business Consulting with giants like Amazon and Microsoft? Been there. Training entrepreneurs? Done that. Motivational speaking? Check. Ultimately, his personal mission in life is to move people into inspired action, empowering them to unlock their unique potential to thrive. I was interested in chatting with Clinton about where his love of speaking and connecting with people came from, where his speaking has taken him and where he’d like to go with it next. Be ready to be inspired!

This post has nothing to do with anything I’ve written before. A fellow member of the Freelance to Freedom Project Community Facebook group asked a question about monthly expenses. She posted her monthly expenses and one expense jumped out at me – $22 bank account fee. Her bank charges her $22 a month for just having the account. I had to tell her about my way to get around this fee. And since I told her, it’s only right that I tell you.

Most banks will waive the bank account fee if you maintain a minimum daily amount in the account (e.g. $1500) or if you have direct deposit. When you’re an employee, direct deposit is easy to set up. When you’re an entrepreneur, though, you may not have money deposited into your account on a consistent basis.

Who wants to maintain $1500 in a checking account that doesn’t earn any interest? Not me. Why not implement your own direct deposit system?

I have an online savings account with Emigrant Bank. The interest rate is low, but at least it’s better than 0% that a typical checking account offers. Most banks will allow a monthly automatic deposit to the account, as long as the deposited amount meets a minimum. At my bank, the minimum amount is $500. Every month on the 15th, I have $500 automatically transferred from my online savings account to my checking account. Direct deposit system implemented! Bank account fee? Gone! And my money is earning interest in the savings account. I just need to always make sure that there’s at least $500 in my online savings account. And I had to make sure that the transaction was an ACH (American Clearing House) credit transaction. Your bank should be able to tell you whether that is the case.

So if you want to say goodbye to bank account fees forever, follow these steps:

1. Open a savings account.
2. Keep at least the minimum amount your bank requires for direct deposit in the savings account.
3. Set up the savings account to automatically transfer the minimum amount from the savings account to your checking account.

I was happy to have writer and editor Dr. Tyra Seldon as our special guest. Founder of the Seldon Writing Group, she develops content for schools, websites, businesses, education companies, and non-profit organizations. In her past life, she was an English professor, teaching several literature and writing courses, including business communication and research method courses. She doesn’t hog all her knowledge to herself, as she often hosts webinars and community workshops for aspiring scholars and writers. I asked Dr. Seldon about her journey to entrepreneurship, her strategies for landing clients, and her biggest mistake as a business owner. Hopefully I have no grammar mistakes in this intro.

When I worked as an engineer, I knew that public speaking was an important skill to have. I didn’t work on it, though. I wasn’t at work to be a speaker, I told myself. I really shot myself in the foot with this mentality.

Here are three reasons that employees should strive to become better public speakers. I wish I had taken my own advice!

It conveys intelligence

A few months after starting a job as an engineer, I learned that I’d have to give monthly presentations to upper management. I struggled at first. While presenting, I’d look down at my feet a lot. I knew what my shoes looked like REALLY well. I mumbled a lot, too. Needless to say, I doubt I made a favorable first impression. When I started actually looking at the execs and enunciating my words, I’m sure their thoughts on me changed. I sounded and looked like I knew what I was talking about. Turns out execs appreciate that kind of thing.

It improves productivity

I used to be a project leader. Every week, I’d call a meeting with the project team. At first, I wasn’t good at explaining what needed to be done for the project. Things would fall through the cracks. You’d be surprised at how productivity picks up when people know what to do the first time.

It leads to promotions and pay raises

So many employees avoid public speaking, which makes the ones that do it more noticeable. Have you ever felt that the wrong people at your company were getting promotions and pay raises? Chances are the reason that they got them is because they were more visible. Why were they more visible? They spoke to decision makers more often. I wish I had a personal example for this one. My bank account would definitely be healthier because of it!

Spiritual coach, energy healer, and massage therapist Ashlee French is a master holistic health practitioner. The owner of Soul Awakening Force, Ashlee is focused on educating her clients on living a healthy lifestyle while finding their authentic selves. I chatted with Ashlee about the inspiration for starting her business, her biggest achievement since being a business owner, and her biggest mistake.

For several years, I worked in the medical devices industry as a product development engineer. I often had to make presentations to my coworkers about what I was working on. It wouldn’t be uncommon for them to know nothing about my work. I had to find a way to make it understandable to them. Here are 3 tips for speaking to people who are not in your field about your field.

Explain field-specific terms

Especially if your field is chock full of technical terms not commonly known by the general public, it’s important to explain what you’re trying to convey. For instance, I used to work with osteoblasts. I couldn’t just keep repeating osteoblasts over and over again and expect my coworkers to know what they were. I had to explain what they were (osteoblasts are the cells in our body that make bone, by the way). If you’re able to provide a handout with definitions of terms, even better.

Use visuals

Whether you use tables, graphs, or even cartoons, visually being able to represent what you’re talking about is always helpful, specifically to those who don’t know your field well. The following graphic is a great representation of osteoblasts. With time, tiny projections from an osteoblast protrude outwards and connect with other osteoblasts, forming a bone matrix (yeah, I know I’m nerdy). The graphic really helps people visualize what an osteoblast’s function. Visuals also break up all the text, which an audience always appreciates.

Be open to feedback

There may be times when you think that something is clear when it’s not. How do you know when things aren’t clear? When your audience doesn’t understand. If they don’t understand, you could’ve presented better. Be willing to accept constructive criticism. Seek it out even. It’ll only make your presentations more effective.